My name is Andy H. When I was 11, I lost my adoptive mom. I was grieving, hurting, and struggling—but instead of compassion, I got confinement.

I was institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital where I was medicated without full consent, constantly monitored, and punished for telling the truth about how I felt. My story is not rare. Thousands of children and teens across the U.S. are locked in facilities where “treatment” often means control, silence, and sedation.

I’ve written a full exposé about this called “Locked In and Left Out: A 10,000-Word Exposé on the Failures of Institutional Mental Health Care.” You can read it here:

👉https://medium.com/@andyhough349/858f197d6283

I’m asking for your help to call on major mental health organizations, like the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Mental Health America, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to:

Re-evaluate the use of forced institutionalization for youth

Investigate human rights conditions inside psychiatric hospitals

Promote trauma-informed, person-centered alternatives

Center lived experience in all policy decisions

Kids like me don’t need cages—we need care.

Please sign and share this petition to demand a system that heals instead of harms.